Appian’s Roman History, Volume I

Name: Appian’s Roman History, Volume I
Author: Appian of Alexandria

Ancient Greek with Horace White’s English translation

Appian’s Roman History, Volume IPreface · Sections 12–14

Swipe or use the arrow keys.

English Page · Branch 10 of 315

Preface · Sections 12–14

Book Mode

Ancient Greek

p. 20

ἐθνῶν ἀσθένειαν ἢ φερεπονίαν καὶ τὴν τῶν ἑλόντων ἀρετὴν ἢ εὐτυχίαν ἢ εἴ τι ἄλλο συγκύρημα συνηνέχθη, καταμάθοιμι.

νομίσας δ’ ἄν τινα καὶ ἄλλον οὕτως ἐθελῆσαι μαθεῖν τὰ Ῥωμαίων, συγγράφω κατὰ ἔθνος ἕκαστον· ὅσα δὲ ἐν μέσῳ πρὸς ἑτέρους αὐτοῖς ἐγένετο, ἐξαίρω καὶ εἰς τὰ ἐκείνων μετατίθημι.

τοὺς δὲ χρόνους ἐπὶ μὲν πᾶσιν περισσὸν ἡγούμην καταλέγειν, ἐπὶ δὲ τῶν ἐπιφανεστάτων ἐκ διαστήματος ὑπομνήσω.

καὶ τὰ ὀνόματα Ῥωμαίοις πάλαι μὲν ἦν ἕν, ὥσπερ ἀνθρώποις ἅπασιν, ἑκάστῳ, μετὰ δὲ ἐγένοντο δύο· καὶ οὐ πολὺς χρόνος, ἐξ οὗ καὶ τρίτον ἤρξατό τισιν ἐς ἐπίγνωσιν ἐκ πάθους ἢ ἀρετῆς προστίθεσθαι, καθὰ καὶ τῶν Ἑλλήνων τισὶν ἐπὶ τὰ ὀνόματα ἦσαν ἐπικλήσεις.

ἐγὼ δὲ ἔστι μὲν ὅπου καὶ πάντων ἐπιμνήσομαι, καὶ μάλιστα ἐπὶ τῶν ἐπιφανῶν, ἐς γνώρισμα τῶν ἀνδρῶν· τὰ δὲ πολλὰ καὶ τούτους καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους, ἃ κυριώτατα ἡγοῦνται, προσαγορεύσω. τριῶν δὲ βίβλων οὐσῶν, αἳ τὰ ἐς τὴν Ἰταλίαν ὄντα αὐτοῖς πολλὰ πεπραγμένα συνάγουσιν, τὰς μὲν τρεῖς ἡγητέον εἶναι Ῥωμαϊκῶν Ἰταλικάς, διὰ δὲ πλῆθος ἔργων διῄρηνται.

καὶ δηλοῦσιν ἡ μὲν πρώτη τὰ τῶν βασιλέων ἑπτὰ γενομένων ἔργα, ἐφεξῆς ἅπαντα ἐφ’ ἑαυτῶν, ὡς ἐγένετο· καὶ αὐτὴν ἐπιγράφω Ῥωμαϊκῶν βασιλικήν.

ἡ δ’ ἑξῆς τὰ ἐς τὴν ἄλλην Ἰταλίαν, χωρίς γε τῆς παρὰ τὸν κόλπον τὸν Ἰόνιον· ἐς δὲ σύγκρισιν τῆς προτέρας ἥδε λέγεται [ἡ ἑξῆς]

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Preface

p. 21

endurance, as well as the bravery or good fortune of their conquerors or any other circumstance contributing to the result.

Thinking that the public would like to learn the history of the Romans in this way, I am going to write the part relating to each nation separately, omitting what happened to the others in the meantime, and taking it up in its proper place. It seems superfluous to put down the dates of everything, but I shall mention those of the most important events now and then. The Roman citizens, like other people, formerly had only one name each; afterwards they took a second, and not much later, for easier recognition, there was given to some of them a third derived from some personal incident or as a distinction for bravery. In like manner surnames have been added to the names of certain Greeks. For purposes of distinction I shall sometimes mention all the names, especially of illustrious men, but for the most part I shall call these and others by the names that are deemed most characteristic.

As there are three books which treat of the numerous exploits of the Romans in Italy, these three must together be considered the Italian Roman history; but on account of the great number of events in them the division has been made. The first of these will show the events that took place in successive reigns while they had kings, of whom there were seven, and this I shall call the history of Rome under the kings. Next in order will be the history of the rest of Italy except the part along the Adriatic. This, by way of distinction from the former, will be called the second Italian book of

About This Reading Edition

Appian’s Roman History asked readers of the Roman Empire to reckon with how conquest, ambition, and civil conflict created their world; its questions about political power, cultural encounter, civic division, and the human cost of expansion remain urgent today. This approximately page-aligned parallel-text edition pairs the Ancient Greek text with Horace White’s English translation, following the 1912 facing leaves while omitting translator’s notes, figures, fragment attributions, marginalia, and unnumbered appendices.

Historical Text and Translation

Appian, a Greek-speaking Roman historian from Alexandria, wrote in the second century CE and arranged Rome’s expansion by the peoples and regions it conquered rather than as one continuous chronology—a strikingly original design. Much of his twenty-four-book work is lost, making the surviving books and fragments especially valuable.

About Horace White

Horace White was an American journalist, editor, and financial writer rather than a university professor. He led the Chicago Tribune and later the New York Evening Post, yet his Greek scholarship produced the fluent two-volume Appian translation of 1899 that became the English text of the original Loeb edition in 1912.

Rights

Appian’s ancient work, Ludwig Mendelssohn’s 1879 Greek edition, Horace White’s 1899/1912 English translation, and the Eulogikon Greek Preface are in the public domain in the United States. The Perseus digital transcriptions are reused under CC BY-SA 4.0; their attribution and share-alike terms continue to apply.